Republican lawmakers and industry groups are vowing to fight President Barack Obama's climate change plan and its first-ever emission limits on new power plants. But they're finding their options are limited — at least in the short term.

A week after an IT contractor gunned down 12 workers at the Washington Navy Yard, Navy officials began moving to close gaps in the security clearance process, recommending that all police reports involving an individual must be included when a background check is done.

From mercury to pesticides, Americans are exposed daily to environmental chemicals that could harm reproductive health, the nation's largest groups of obstetricians and fertility specialists said Monday.

In a break with tea party-aligned Senate conservatives, Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday he will not vote to block legislation aimed at preventing a partial government shutdown, even though Democrats intend to rewrite it to restore funds needed to keep the nation's three-year-old health care law in existence.

The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it has approved broader use of an innovative artificial heart valve that can be implanted without major surgery, allowing surgeons to insert the implant through multiple pathways.

Facing a possible firing, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the agency's tea party scandal retired Monday, ending one chapter in a ruckus that has engulfed the tax-collection agency since spring.

Senators called on President Barack Obama to reiterate that the United States will not accept a nuclear-capable Iran and that crippling economic sanctions on Tehran will continue despite Iranian President Hasan Rouhani's recent overtures to the West.

The International Spy Museum, one of the most popular attractions in the nation's capital over the past decade, is considering a move to a historic library that would give it more space for exhibits and a link to the city's convention center.

President Barack Obama memorialized the victims of the Washington Navy Yard shooting as patriots but also individuals — one with a talent for fixing cars, another who coached softball and yet another who loved hockey and her cats.

The White House is under pressure to ramp up counterterrorism action against al-Shabab in Somalia following the al-Qaida-linked group's deadly attack on an upscale Kenyan shopping mall that has killed and injured dozens, including Americans.

Gov. Rick Snyder — the understated, self-described "nerd" and former CEO — is making one thing clear as he prepares for a challenging re-election race next year: He intends to be part of the national conversation underway about the Republican Party's future.

Hillary Rodham Clinton says in an interview with New York Magazine that she is wrestling with running for president again but remains "pragmatic and realistic" as she considers a potential White House campaign in 2016.

A member of the House Homeland Security Committee says the al-Qaida affiliated group behind the deadly attack on an upscale shopping mall in Kenya recruited up to 50 people from Somali American communities in the U.S.

President Barack Obama arrives at the United Nations on Monday with diplomatic openings, the result of help from unexpected partners, on three fronts: Iran, Syria, and elusive peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Stung by public unease about new details of spying by the National Security Agency, President Barack Obama selected a panel of advisers he described as independent experts to scrutinize the NSA's surveillance programs to be sure they weren't violating civil liberties and to restore Americans' trust.

President Barack Obama on Sunday memorialized the victims of the Washington Navy Yard shooting by urging Americans not to give up on a transformation in gun laws that he argued are to blame for an epidemic of violence. "There is nothing inevitable about it — it comes about because of decisions we make or fail to make," Obama said.

Four American citizens were reported injured in the Saturday attack on a shopping mall in Kenya. The wife of a foreign service national working for the U.S. Agency for International Development was killed, U.S. officials said.

Days after mass shootings in both of his hometowns, President Barack Obama urged his most ardent supporters Saturday "to get back up and go back at it" and help push stalled legislation out of Congress so dangerous people won't get their hands on guns.

Joe Lhota spent more than 30 years quietly stalking New York City's halls of power, remaining largely unknown as he sat at Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's right hand during eight crisis-filled years at City Hall and in boardrooms at investment banks and Madison Square Garden.

After years of estrangement, the United States and Russia are joined as partners in a bold plan to rid Syria of chemical weapons. More surprising yet, American and Iranian leaders — after an exchange of courteous letters — may meet in New York for the first time since the Islamic revolution swept Iran nearly 35 years ago.